April 22, 2017

Memo to Trump: Use Federal Spigot as Compliance Weapon

Many of us may remember arguments we had with our parents when we were teenagers. Often, the parents (typically the father) would emphasize they had the upper hand with a statement like this: "As long as you live under my roof, you'll do as I say."

If you were a 16-year-old -- or even a 19- or 20-year-old, that was a convincing argument: Free lodging, three squares a day, and maybe just the requirement that you do a few chores such as mow the lawn and take out the garbage. Oh, and of course, the necessity of subjugating some of your preferences such as staying out later than your parents wanted, playing loud rock-n-roll, or (these days) not firing up a joint in the garage.

What's interesting is that legions of supposedly erudite, highly educated folk in the academy do not seem to grasp a concept that millions of teenagers have realized for decades: If someone is supporting you, you cannot and should not have complete autonomy. To some extent, you must play by their rules. Or, to put it in colloquial terms, don't bite the hand that feeds you.

President Donald Trump promised during his campaign to take a meat ax to federal funding for so-called sanctuary cities. In recent weeks, his administration has begun moving toward that goal, amidst the predictable howls of indignation from the righteous Left. If the administration hasn't pursued this next suggestion, they'd better get on the stick: Make it clear to universities, which receive beaucoup federal largess, that Uncle Sam will turn off the spigot if they don't start respecting the First Amendment.

Of late, whenever a prominent conservative is slated to speak at a university, we have witnessed outrageous demonstrations on or near campuses, often leading to injuries and property destruction. This happened in February at the University of California-Berkeley, when Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak. And earlier this week, pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators clashed at Berkeley as conservative Ann Coulter's planned speaking engagement drew near. Fearing more violence if she were to speak, the university dis-invited her, then a few days later offered her an alternative date.

And then there was that female Middlebury College Professor who had to be hospitalized after leftist riff-raff roughed her up as she attempted to escort a libertarian-conservative speaker -- author and political scientist Charles Murray -- away from threatening crowds. There have also been untold examples of unruly students standing up and shouting down conservatives who attempt to speak in campus venues. And there are many, many reports of students stating that they feared expressing conservative sentiment in their classrooms or in their term papers for fear of their professors giving them lower grades.

While I'm at it, here's a link to my April 2014 post berating Brandeis University for dis-inviting activist and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has spoken out against horrible practices of Islam, including female circumcision, honor killings and general misogyny. In the warped minds of that university's hard left flank, Hirsi Ali is a "hater" and "Islamophobic," two words that betray the shallow, fatuous "thinking" that goes on among these kooks.

Whether suppressing conservative speech or kowtowing to illegal aliens, the pompous leftists believe they are above the law, and don't give a whit about the consequences of aiding and abetting lawbreakers.

In the case of sanctuary cities, we hear a lot about victims of crime perpetrated by illegals. But even those illegals who do not commit crimes are a burden, for many of them use hospital emergency rooms, and they or their children attend public schools that they do not support through property taxes. Children of illegal aliens may get Medicaid, food stamps and other social services.

One of the lame arguments local police forces have used to oppose doing their jobs is that they ought not to be doing the job of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. They are not deputies of the federal government, the local police maintain. Nonsense. Criminal law originates at both the state and federal levels, and the United States Code is a federal animal.

Do these municipal police think that their local city councils enacted laws against crimes like murder, rape, assault and armed robbery? No; they're not that stupid. More often than not, the officers are simply carrying out the orders of left wing police chiefs, who too often are more politicians than law enforcement officers.

I am not sure whether Trump has the constitutional authority to arbitrarily cut spending on sanctuary cities and universities that trample on the First Amendment, or whether Congress must be part of the equation. But even if it's the former -- i.e., spending cuts via executive order -- it might be just what the doctor ordered to pound some sense into the pigheaded leftists.

Comments

One of the dark secrets of the Democrat party machine is how much of it is funded by taxpayers.

For example, a great many of those supposedly virtuous non-profits exist entirely because of tax deductible donations and grants handed out for "community outreach," "raising awareness," and so on.

Colleges are equally culpable, and it's fascinating how it came to pass that a single letter from a single bureaucrat (the infamous "dear colleague" letter of 2011) created a system of kangaroo courts to punish college men yet nothing can be done to stop egregious First Amendment violations.

Trump doesn't actually need to drain the swamp - if he simply blocks new water from entering, the swamp will drain itself.

Well, technically you are right, following the letter of the law. But the spirit of the law is broader. My thinking is, if the federal government is funding organizations, including universities, that suppress free speech, then Uncle Sam is indirectly suppressing speech.